SparkleShan

Here are some photos of Halloween this year. I missed trick or treating with Emma last year, so this year was great. We went trick treating in my mother's neighborhood like always with the cousins and Ann and her kids. Here are some pictures. Ryan, Owen, Emma, Aiyanna and baby Tristian. Little Witchy Bean Marcus the Bug After Trick or Treating Bobby and I went to a Halloween party at Danielle and JJ's house and then out to downtown New Haven for a bit. Mile High Airlines

SO as some of you know, I was taking ballroom dancing lessons over the summer at Fred Astaire Dance Studio in Mystic. I was planning on doing one of the competitions and I was searching the Internet for Latin ballroom costumes. I saw a ton that I like, but even used any of the decent ones were $500 to $1200 or more. So I decided to attempt to make one on my own. I looked at several different styles of Latin dresses that I liked and decide to use certain elements from each to make my own dress. I didn't end up doing the competition dies to scheduling conflicts and the cost to enter was like $800 or more! The dress is for the most part finish, excepted I need to put more swarovski crystals on the bodice (it is a very time consuming process). I wanted to share the pictures anyway because I am very proud of it. Let me know what you think about it.

I have done a lot of research on site for ballroom dancing including music, shoes, costumes ect. Below are a few of the best sites I have found http://www.ballroomdancers.com/ This site has videos of American and International Style Dances in both smooth and Latin that show you how to do the basic steps. The site also has a lot of other useful information for ballroom dancers like where to buy costumes and shoes and music. You can even sell your costumes of buy used ones on the site.